Variations on a Theme

Introduction

I am aware that my last post on the 15th Nov was very involved and complicated. We are still learning about genetics and sex variations. It's a fascinating area but a complex one that requires an open mind because it challenges past notions about female and male bodies and what is normal or abnormal. Just as psychology focuses on abnormalities partly because it's only when people have mental health issues that they go to a psychologist/psychiatrist. So how far we know what constitutes mental health is difficult to say. How do we measure it? Is it measured on a scale of happiness? What is happiness? Does it mean you are always smiling 😃 or laughing? Is it how well you are coping in life? How is that measured? After all, everyone copes wonderfully if things go well but what happens when everything is going very badly? 

Talking about Sex

Many people are uncomfortable talking about the human body in much the same way as they don't like talking about sex, especially when it's to their own kids. This is particularly true of women. However, how much men actually have sensible conversations about sex is open to question. Foucault had a great deal to say about the body which is why feminists draw on his work. Negative body image springs from societal norms, peer group pressure, and religions especially those which overfocus on the world to come rather than this life and see the body as something to reject rather than embrace.

Human Variations

There is no such thing as people being 100% female or 100% male or 100% intersex with a full deck of cards for both sexes. Or, as InterAct put it, "it is not possible for one person to have both a fully developed penis and vagina". There is no clear definition of intersex that all are prepared to agree on. And being born intersex is more common than you might think. According to InterAct, by Dr Anne Fausto-Sterling's calculations, your chances of having an intersex baby is far greater than having twins (you have approx. 0.3% chance of having twins but approx. 1.7% chance of your baby being intersex). Every person is an individual with unique variations. We are all variations on a theme, if you like, variations on the theme of what it means to be a human being. This article in The Guardian talks about feminism and body positivity and includes a photo of the artwork 'The Great Wall of Vagina' which quite explicitly shows vulva variation in women. This proves the point that we are all unique, no one has a 'perfect' body, such notions of perfection are a patriarchal social construct. No two fingerprints are identical. So why do people expect anything else to be identical between humans? Thus, even if you are a cis, heterosexual woman you are still going to differ in some way from your friends who also may claim to be cis heterosexual women. Thus, it is to be expected that those who are in the LGBT+ community will also vary greatly between each other. Two gay men will not be identical in every way just as two lesbians won't be the same. Their physical traits, emotions, sexual desires will vary. Large breasts don't necessarily mean the woman is more of a female than one with smaller breasts. It depends on inherited genes but also on how physically active they are, what type of exercise they do, or even on their weight and on whether they have had children. So-called more masculine women can, nevertheless, have large breasts but that doesn't mean that they feel more feminine as a result. 

Therefore, this idea that it's only the LGBT+ people who display peculiarities is a slur. Everyone has variations in their physical, sexual, mental, and emotional well being. Indeed, heterosexual people are not always that focused on the opposite sex. Otherwise, we wouldn't have bisexuals and pansexuals. But even leaving aside bisexuals and pansexuals not all heterosexual women and men are as interested in spending time with or rushing into marrying someone of the opposite sex. And sometimes women end up marrying someone even though they may not wish to simply because they become accidentally pregnant and feel pressure to make the child legitimate. So there are different types of heterosexuals and they differ widely within their own group. The same is true for the LGBT+ community. It's not a question of them being that different. It only appears so because there are a greater number of so-called heterosexuals in the world whether by choice or custom, or family values or religious pressure.

Conclusion

We talk about people becoming more scientifically literate but that entails not just believing everything scientists tell us. People do need to think critically and ask: Does it make sense? What does my experience tell me? What does my knowledge thus far tell me about the present situation? As we learn more we have to be prepared to revise how we think about things. Scientists equally revise their knowledge as research discoveries further or change what we believe to be true, which is why science is called merely provisional knowledge. Just as we learn more about, say C19, so we are also learning more about gender and sex. Thus, it would be extremely discriminatory, not to mention ignorant, if we choose to ignore new information on gender and sex variations but don't apply the same attitude to recent research in, for instance, space science.